The Armoire
Medium
Etching on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 34.2 × 46.1 cm (13 1/2 × 18 3/16 in.); Plate: 42 × 55.2 cm (16 9/16 × 21 3/4 in.); Sheet: 49.3 × 65.2 cm (19 7/16 × 25 11/16 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
103888
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The Rococo taste for narrative led the great painter and printmaker Jean-Honoré Fragonard to devote his largest etching to a risqué domestic drama. A young woman and her paramour have been interrupted in a compromising position by her parents. The rumpled state of the bedclothes alone would have roused their ire, but they have also discovered the young man hiding in their daughter’s closet. The mortified young man’s strategically positioned hat leaves both the parents and viewers in little doubt...
About the Artist
Jean Honoré Fragonard · 1732–1806
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806) was a French painter and printmaker whose late Rococo manner was distinguished by remarkable facility, exuberance, and hedonism. Born in Grasse, he moved to Paris where he trained under Jean-Baptiste Chardin and François Boucher, winning the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1752. After studying in Italy alongside Hubert Robert, Fragonard returned to Paris in 1761 to fi...